A Boundless Sky
by Eagleflame
Summary: A collection of monologues in free-verse poem format. Every chapter is dedicated to one surprise character, detailing their inner thoughts and emotions either during, before, or after an event has occurred. Spoiler alerts regarding the entire story, as some poems look at events that are spoiler-heavy. I hope you enjoy a gaze into the minds of Xenoblade's memorable characters.
1. Zanza's Loneliness

**This is a free-verse poem of Zanza's inner musings right up to his decision to attack the Mechonis. I personally can't stand Zanza, but there was just something about his feelings of loneliness and betrayal detailed in his wiki page. Doesn't change my feelings, really; he still has an ego the size of a watermelon. But here it is — I hope you enjoy this rather poetic piece on Zanza, and more on other characters will be coming.**

 _"_ _Have you never thought about it? Never contemplated what lies beyond this world?"_

 _"_ _Beyond this world? Lady Meyneth once said that aside from the Bionis and the Mechonis, this world is filled with nothing more than a boundless ocean."_

 _"…_ _But what lies beyond that?"_

* * *

When I gaze at the stars,

On those nights where everything seems rather dark,

I'm reminded of something.

* * *

Friends; I should laugh at that.

Klaus' friends; I should really be laughing at that.

But I'm not.

* * *

I look up at Meyneth,

With her gaggle of little machines

Who call her " _Lady_ Meyneth."

She calls them her friends. How can a god have friends-?!

 _Perhaps, we are not…_

No.

We are.

 _But then, how can she…_

* * *

I don't understand any of this.

This unfair treatment.

My spawn don't treat me with respect

Or even notice me.

If I were to take a biological form,

I'd be yet another brat in their colonies

Or another freak in their air that they pollute with their every breath.

I don't want to take their grotesque forms

And leave this power.

They don't know me — I don't know how.

But, unfortunately, I know them too well.

I know their plans, their thoughts. They grow too eager to leave.

* * *

As Meyneth's spawn and mine converse philosophy

I listen

And I watch

With ears they never notice

And eyes they never see.

Despite my powers and absolute control over my creations

Why can't I wipe that smile off their faces?

That pondering look;

* * *

Such as

Why is our universe but an endless sea

With a boundless sky

With curious human mockeries?

This isn't the world I wanted.

Is this what Meyneth wanted?

Egil never asked about what lay beyond me —

— Why didn't he? Why did Arglas?

Why did my child-?

* * *

I don't understand this life, this world.

I'm beginning to understand this, though:

 _We were never meant to change it._

Eager creatures, indeed.

"Perhaps they took after you, Zanza."

I'm sure _Lady_ Meyneth thinks that.

But my subjects don't

Because they don't remember me any more.

* * *

I can't allow them to grow.

I can't allow them to grow sentient in their thoughts and in their actions.

They'd _live_.

If they did, I will die.

Is this one of life's cruel trade-offs my father taught me?

I wish I listened more; maybe I'd have found out what to do next.

 **But a god doesn't need someone to tell him what more to do.**

 _Do I…?_

* * *

 _"…_ _But what lies beyond that?"_

* * *

He has no idea. None of them have any idea.

They all live in their little punitive lives

With their gaggle of friends and group of family.

They rely on each other;

They are my gaggle of family

But they don't rely on me — I rely on them.

Bloodsucking parasites.

They don't help me, they ignore me.

They don't obey me,

They scoff at my existence.

* * *

I know what I will do. What I must do.

Now I'm turning to them — or do I mean against them?

I don't think it matters any more.

They live on a wicked turntable

Where Lady Luck has finally scoffed at them.

I'll give you a reason to want to get away from me, Arglas.

Perhaps Alvis will do something worthwhile for me again

Besides being just an ancient computer Artificial Intelligence

With more Intelligence than the parasites on my backside.

The Mechonis can't prevent my actions.

The Homs

The High Entia

The Giants — oh, especially not the Giants! —

The Nopon

…I've made too many species. They're too diverse.

Perhaps the Giants can be the first to go? I should really be thanking Arglas,

* * *

Whose body feels so strong

And so powerful.

It's a pity he must lose it.

* * *

When I gaze at the stars,

On those nights where everything seems rather dark,

I'm reminded of something:

* * *

 **Only a god can stop me now.**


	2. Shulk's Nightmares

**Surprise! It's Shulk ti—**

 **I'm not gong to say it, this is too serious for Reyn's antics.**

 **I chose to focus this monologue on Shulk's cryptic dreams and the fact that he's dead.**

 **This takes place from before the reveal and after it, when he's floating in Memory Space. To give the right feeling, I personally recommend having "A Spiritual Place" playing softly in the background as you read. I hope you enjoy it!**

" _It's been a long time since I last had this dream._ "

" _I reached out for a piece of scrap metal,_

 _And then I fell_

 _Into the ground._ "

* * *

I remember standing in front of the Monado

In Ose Tower. My parents moved past me

To grab it.

They sounded happy.

* * *

" _You can't do that because… —_

 _—_ _You aren't here._ "

" _Not anymore._ "

* * *

But then

Everything changed.

I don't remember why or when. Only the burning pain

And the silent,

Sobbing screams.

The Monado explodes with a power

That I have never seen before

—

Blackness.

A tormented pain in my temple

As if I was brought back to life

After I was dead.

My mind melted,

My pulse false,

My body numb.

* * *

Maybe it's the c-cold of the tower —

— That unnatural sensation

Of invisible ice climbing up your thighs

And hands,

Freezing over your face

And entrapping you in an expression of complete and

Utter terror.

* * *

That's what I felt. Now I remember that.

A voice in my skull

Ricocheting in my ears

"I only want what's mine."

"Your body, your mind,

A little sliver of your tiny heart

And a chunk of your icy soul."

* * *

Ose tower.

A stab in the snow.

An icicle of death.

I can still feel how cold it is

When I try to sleep at night in the lab.

The Monado, sitting so placidly on its stand

Glowing slightly

Just as it was all those years ago.

* * *

Some days I can remember

Other times I cannot.

When I'm with friends

The feeling disappears —

— That crushing pain in my temple,

That lucid terror in my heart.

But I don't understand

Why he keeps insisting that

I'm not h-here…anymore.

But I never guessed that

* * *

I'd be dead.

* * *

Deep down, I've always felt this emptiness inside of me,

As if my life's work

Really was all for nothing.

Maybe,

If I hadn't looked at the Monado

— No, if Dickson hadn't brought it back —

None of this would be happening right now.

I wouldn't be away from Fiora

And Reyn

And all my friends —…

Dunban wouldn't have lost the use of his right arm.

The Emperor wouldn't have died.

Perhaps Egil's — no, Meyneth's — dream could have been fulfilled.

But it happened;

It all happened;

And I was powerless to stop it.

Even with my visions, even with the power to see into the future

And perhaps change it

Mold it

Shape it into whatever outcome I want

It all still happened. Our destiny still tumbled out of my control and into a deep, deep chasm

 _Into the ground_.

I couldn't actually control any of it.

* * *

 _What was the point to anything_?!

* * *

I remember, in my dreams,

When I fell —

I was watching me. I said nothing,

Only looked down and sighed.

As if he too could do nothing

But watch me fall over and over again

During every reiteration of the same dream

When I fell —

I reached out for a piece of scrap metal

Thought that perhaps Dickson might like it for a sword

But I never realized that perhaps he only wanted his sabre

* * *

To kill me.

* * *

Releasing my frozen heart

Trapped in Valak Mountain's snowy,

Suffocating depths.

Freeing my shattered soul

Locked away within the icy walls of Ose Tower;

Curled up in the center

Of an abandoned chapel.

I sleep

And I cry.

* * *

And suddenly everything feels lighter.

* * *

" _Will you walk the path laid out by Zanza?_ "

" _Or will you walk a new path?_ "

* * *

My spirit mends

As hands run over its glass fragments and parts

To fuse splinted seams shut

And seal bolts back in their empty holes.

* * *

" _That was always how it was going to be_."

* * *

If I never looked at the Monado

And stayed far away from it

None of this would be happening right now.

* * *

" _If I wanted to walk the predetermined path,_

 _I wouldn't have come this far_."

* * *

I would be away from Fiora

And Reyn

And all my friends.

Dunban wouldn't have lived in the Battle of Sword Valley.

The Emperor wouldn't have died

And Melia wouldn't have ascended to the throne

Because she would have died trying.

Perhaps Egil's — no, Meyneth's — dream couldn't have been fulfilled.

But it happened;

It all happened;

I would have lost everyone I knew

And everyone I loved;

I would have never met new friends

And gotten to know new people

New places

New species and customs.

Egil wouldn't have been given new hope and new understanding.

My friends wouldn't all be together.

Sharla would have never met up with Gadolt once again.

Meyneth would be suppressed away.

Otharon would have burned in a river of ether, dying for a boy who had no hope of rescue from me and Reyn and Sharla.

* * *

" _Even with the odds stacked against us…_ "

* * *

Even with my visions, even with the power to see into the future

* * *

" _…_ _Even though I can't see the future…_ "

* * *

And perhaps change it

Mold it

Shape it into whatever outcome I want

It all still happened. Our destiny still tumbled out of my control and out of a deep, deep chasm

* * *

" _…_ _I'll keep walking_."

* * *

 _Coming out from the ground_.

I couldn't actually control any of it.

* * *

If I hadn't researched the Monado

Zanza would have cast me aside

Anyways

And if I hadn't researched the Monado —

* * *

" _Fiora. Reyn. Dunban. Sharla. Melia, Riki._ "

* * *

— I wouldn't be around to save my friends.

* * *

" _Well then…_

 _Succeed and follow a new path_."


	3. A Mechon's Thoughts

**This monologue is a little unique from the others, and I hope a welcome surprise. I was inspired to write it when I was exploring the Bionis' Leg in a rainstorm and passed the mechon under the cliffs.**

The rain pours down in sheets as we remain huddled underneath the outcropping of rock.

It's been about 3 weeks — maybe more.

I haven't so much as to cared how long we've been stuck in these plains.

* * *

When Egil recalled us back a few months ago,

We stayed behind.

A member of us had a broken receiver.

I had a broken orbital module. Even if we could return to the Bionis,

Motion was futile. We had missed the carriers when I tried to help a M32.

I didn't want to stay; I suppose the others could say that I got scared.

But I wasn't going anywhere blind.

* * *

That attack failed miserably.

* * *

There's only two of us M64 units left; a homs man dispatched many of them away,

Back during that attack.

We managed to get as far as Raguel Bridge — according to my internal maps —

Until the rain fell along with our spirits.

Some of the mechon were in a good enough shape to outlast the cold water,

But we damaged ones couldn't risk it. The storms come so often that I'm too afraid to try

Our trek again.

I know the way to the Mechonis. I just don't want to attempt it,

Especially after I heard a mechon unit be crushed by a heavy Bionis creature.

* * *

Call me a coward if you will — I'm too tired to protest any longer.

The others in our band look up to me as their leader, although I try to speak otherwise.

I'm no longer fit to serve,

It's only shaming to return to Egil a failed scrap of metal.

How depressing.

* * *

Though…

I suppose a part of me longs for the cold of Mechonis Field once again,

Or the hot conveyor tracks of Central Factory. To be repaired, cared, insnared

By an old fancy to finally say hello to that DOGMA unit who had that light in her eyes whenever she'd see me.

I wonder what she'd say now.

* * *

Maybe we could keep going, by chance that the group still has the gumption to try.

If we hurry, we could avoid the rain

Once it again falls like the Mechonis' tears.

Egil told us once about Lady Meyneth. How she was kind and respective. Respectable.

He could never surpass her when it came to destroying Zanza's Bionis.

I wish he'd figure that out.

* * *

Does he by chance remember us? Feel our presence abandoned on the thigh of the Bionis?

Being built, _re_ paired, _re_ built — all that has to make a leader notice

What his troops go though for him. What amount of new bolts and polished waxes and stinging paint jobs

Does it take for a Machina to see me? See us?

I guess I never really thought about it until now.

How little he notes of anyone other than himself,

And his precious Face Mechon.

* * *

Maybe, if we had a Face Mechon who wasn't _so crazy_ ,

We could have done more than we did.

But it happened.

And I wish it happened differently.

* * *

With the constant _whir_ of my comrades,

And the _clickclickclack_ of my tiny friends,

We stand huddled under this rock.

Stand engulfed in sheets of rain and the tinny sound of our own thoughts.

One unit shrieks something out,

And all of the sudden there're more sounds—

The shouting of homs

The crunching of a mechon

The hissing of a hot blade under cold water.

* * *

It's a pity, really, though I can only smile.

I was quite hoping to see that DOGMA unit again.

But, then again,

Maybe I still can.


End file.
